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Work

The tools, rules, and relationships of the workplace illustrate some of the enduring collaborations and conflicts in the everyday life of the nation. The Museum has more than 5,000 traditional American tools, chests, and simple machines for working wood, stone, metal, and leather. Materials on welding, riveting, and iron and steel construction tell a more industrial version of the story. Computers, industrial robots, and other artifacts represent work in the Information Age.

But work is more than just tools. The collections include a factory gate, the motion-study photographs of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, and more than 3,000 work incentive posters. The rise of the factory system is measured, in part, by time clocks in the collections. More than 9,000 items bring in the story of labor unions, strikes, and demonstrations over trade and economic issues.

Pronto Systems, Inc. introduced its Pronto Series 16 computer in 1983. It represented the high end of business computing of its era. The Pronto pioneered innovative design features, including a tilting and swiveling monitor, small foot print, a streamlined and adjustable keyboard, and an expandable cord that allowed the processor to be stored as much as six feet away from the monitor. These features won a 1983 design award from Industrial Design Magazine. The computer offered the first tower system—a design that later became common in the industry.

Inside, the Pronto 16 was a powerful machine designed for the full range of business applications. It had a 16-bit Intel 80186 microprocessor. It was shipped with MS-DOS 2.0. It had 128 KB of RAM, which could be expanded to 1 MB. The standard hard drive was 5.6 MB, and it was removable. The computer had dual 800 KB floppy drives (5 ¼"), dual serial ports, one parallel port, and a high-resolution monochrome monitor. Users could buy a color monitor as an option. Base price was $3,000.

Over 1,000 systems were sold from 1983 to 1987. The company had to file for bankruptcy when the stock market crashed while the company was in the process of going public through an Initial Public Offering.

Winifred Weislogel earned this white cardboard certificate on March 14, 1944, for neatly and accurately writing Gregg shorthand for five minutes at one hundred words per minute. While there are various shorthand systems, all shorthand consists of symbolic writing for words or phrases that allow the stenographer to quickly record oral dictation. Shorthand was invaluable for business records before stenography machines, dictation machines, typewriters, recorders, and personal computers. Gregg shorthand was invented by John Robert Gregg in 1888 and is a phonetic shorthand based on elliptical figures. Winifred Weislogel’s secretarial training in high school taught her shorthand and typing, and she went on to a career in the U.S. Foreign Service between 1957 and 1978.

Scrip is a substitute for legal tender often used in coal towns, issued as wage or credit against the miner’s next paycheck. Scrip could only be spent in company stores for goods (sold at a markup in isolated towns with weak labor unions) and were often a source of contention between workers and management. This scrip was issued by Black Diamond Collieries in Coal Creek, Tennessee, during the 1920s. These coupons, in five- and ten-cent denominations, were good for $2 worth of goods at any store run by Black Diamond. The Southern Coupon Company of Birmingham, Alabama, produced the coupon book around the same time. The company held a patent on coupon books that could not be opened before they were issued to the owner. In the case of this scrip booklet, the owner had to crack open the book and sign a page acknowledging its receipt.

New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated (NUMMI) was an auto manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, that was jointly operated by Toyota and General Motors from 1984 until 2010. GM had operated the plant at Fremont from 1960, where the clashes between management and union workers grew so contentious that the plant closed in 1982. When it reopened as a joint venture between Toyota and GM, Japanese management techniques had been studied and implemented to emphasize collaboration and teamwork between workers and management. The objects collected from NUMMI included donations from Judy Weaver (engineering department secretary) and Rick Madrid (quality control), who submitted winning essays on the concept of teamwork.

Rick Madrid wore this hat with the NUMMI logo as part of his uniform. The hat is adorned with a variety of pins celebrating work projects, special awards, personal flair, or milestones that were achieved during Madrid’s work at the NUMMI plant.

This employee identification badge belonged to a female worker with employee number 9897 at the MacArthur Brothers Bag Loading Plant in Woodbury, New Jersey, in 1918. The plant was built and operated by the MacArthur Brothers Company. The contracting company, established in 1826, also built Camp Merritt for the United States during World War I. The plant produced smokeless propellant for shells used in World War I, and 4,000 of the 6,500 workers at the plant were women who weighed the powder and sewed the silk bags closed. The women traveled from nearby cities and towns to support the war effort, and lived at the complex in dormitories. The Woodbury plant produced over 1.3 million charges during its operation from June to November of 1918. The expansion of the scale of industry often meant that managers did not know every employee by sight, which created the need for employee identification in large plants, and concerns about espionage heightened this need during wartime.

This employee identification badge belonged to a female Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company employee and was used during the 1940s. The expansion of the scale of industry often meant that managers did not know every employee by sight, which created the need for employee identification in large plants.

This lunch box belonged to Mr. Louis Schram, born July 27, 1894. Schram served in World War I but was rejected for service in the Second World War. Instead, he took a second job in an unidentified war plant in Toledo, Ohio, where he used the lunch box. Toledo was the site of a defense industry boom as home to the Willys-Overland automobile manufacturing plant that produced Jeeps for the military. Schram moved back to Chicago in 1944, and passed away in Wilmette, Illinois, in 1971.

This black, pressed-metal rectangular lunch pail has a slightly curved top to fit a thermos.

This ProxCard II ID badge belonged to Beth Leaman during her employment as a systems analyst at William M. Mercer-Meidinger Incorporated from 1990 until 1992. Beth Leaman worked most of her career as a computer business analyst and manager in the insurance and benefits industry focusing on employee communication and benefit selection transactions. As a manager she supervised numerous people, translating the needs of her clients to the technical skills of her employees. The ProxCard II ID is a combination ID badge and control card. By waving the badge at "readers" located at different points throughout the building, the badge controls the front door, elevator doors, doors to building wings, and access to certain rooms.

New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated (NUMMI) was an auto manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, operated jointly by Toyota and General Motors from 1984 until 2010. GM had operated the plant at Fremont from 1960 where the clashes between management and union workers resulted in the plant’s closure in 1982. When it reopened as a joint venture between Toyota and GM, Japanese management techniques had been studied and implemented to emphasize collaboration and teamwork between workers and management. The objects collected from NUMMI included donations from Judy Weaver (engineering department secretary) and Rick Madrid (quality control), who submitted winning essays on the concept of teamwork.

Judy Weaver’s employee identification badge is contained in a plastic sleeve that also holds pins representing projects, awards, or milestones achieved during Weaver’s work at the NUMMI plant.

Jim Nelson of Greenwood, SC, made this cotton planter before the turn of the twentieth century. Like many farmers, Nelson tinkered with available material. There were numerous patents for cotton planters, and factory-made planters were available.

Nelson's planter is all-wood except for the furrow opener and the furrow closer and a rim that goes around the wheel at the center of the drum. The drum is made of soft wood and measures 20 inches in diameter and 13 inches by width. In operation, the drum was filled with cotton seeds that fell through 13 openings as the drum revolved. The two metal pieces used as a furrow opener are 13 ½ inches high by 3 ½ inches wide, and the furrow coverers measure 8 ½ inches high by 1 ½ inch wide. Both are bolted to the wooden frame and controlled by a cord on the handles.

Ruben F. Vaughn bought the planter in 1902 and used it until he donated it to the National Museum of American History in 1937.